Princeton University Press releases short e-books

“All of our new books are published as e-books as well,” said Rob Tempio, a senior editor at the press. The idea is that the press will take particularly notable or popular excerpts from these books that are able to stand alone.

“I don’t know if anyone else is doing this. Lots of places are experimenting with new, short content, but I don’t know if anyone else is carving up new books and selling them like this,” Tempio said. “The idea is it’s almost like a music single.”

“Amazon is one of the companies experimenting in the field of e-books, having just started Amazon Singles — short essays that are offered in e-book form only for under $5,” Tempio said.

“Prior to this program someone in our marketing program here had a similar idea for us — something that was e-book only, not just some sort of short essay that was too short to be an actual book,” Tempio said. “It would be new content — something new that was written explicitly for this purpose.”

Tempio cited “complicated reasons” for why the press did not go this route, instead choosing to sample works from its “fantastic back list” of books.

“We’ve published Einstein, Hume, editions of Thoreau ... This is a way for us to draw on that to provide short e-book-only content,” he added.

There is a print precedent for this idea. In 1963, “A Monetary History of the United States, 1867-1960,” by Milton Friedman and Anna Jacobson Schwartz, was published, and it “quickly became apparent that chapter seven was the most talked about,” Tempio noted, adding that the chapter provided the authors’ explanation of the reasons behind the Great Depression.

“A lot of people were teaching this chapter in classes, so we pulled out this chapter and sold it by itself,” he said.

The Princeton Shorts will contain excerpts from a mix of many different kinds of books, including a book about the coming oil shortage, a popular book about honeybees, a book about the ongoing financial crisis and an excerpt from Carl von Clausewitz’s book “On War.”

The current plan is to release five more shorts in the spring, according to Tempio. However, the current shorts are not yet for sale — they will be released Nov. 9.

The target audience, Tempio noted, is “general readers who are on their device and just want something as a quick read.”

“Clausewitz is used quite frequently in courses,” he said. “As we select things we are looking at things which are selected for course packs. Once we have this program in place, we can tailor it even more to that.”

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The shorts can be purchased through Kindle, Nook and Google bookstores, and “just about every participating e-book dealer,” Tempio said. They are not, however, available on iBooks yet.

“We’re hoping to have a partnership with Apple in the future,” Tempio added, noting that iPad and iPhone users can purchase the shorts through Kindle apps.